How to set the startup project for an asp.net core template? - asp.net-core

Question

I am currently creating a multi-project template, I want to distribute using a .VSIX-extension for Visual Studio. When the extension is installed the user can select my template among the others provided by Microsoft in the "Create a new project" window.
My template consists of three project:
ProjectName.Server
ProjectName.Contract
ProjectName.Client
ProjectName is the user-given name while the suffixes "Server", "Contract" and "Client" are fixed. The issue I experience is that when the users create a new project the Client-project is always selected as a startup-project by default. I want the server-project to be selected as a startup-project by visual studio. It looks like following:
The client project is not the correct startup project, but users don't know that the server project it the correct startup project, so I want to take off the selection and integrate it right into the template, so the correct startup template is selected by VS when creating the project.
I already removed the suffix "Server" from this project, so it is shown as the first project in the solution explorer and I hoped VS would then select it as the startup-project. This did not work unfortunately.
Can anyone give me a hint on how to configure the startup-project in the template?
If you have any questions don't hesitate to comment.

Answer 1

These configurations are stored in the Solution User Options (.suo) file.
You can refer to my steps below to try:
First, Close Visual Studio and find the folder where your solution is.
Second, Open the .sln file with a text editor, you see all your projects encapsulated in Project – EndProject lines:
Third, Cut and paste the desired default startup items into the first.
Fourth, Delete your .suo file(hidden files: Solution Folder/.vs/Solution Name Folder/v17/.suo, I use VS2022).
Finally, Open your solution in Visual Studio.
You can have a try.

Answer 2

You will likely need to associate a custom IWizard assembly with your project template, and then explicitly set the startup project by setting the SolutionBuild.StartupProjects to the desired project in your solution.
Once upon a time, I did this using code similar to the following:
VSProject startupProj = FindVSProject(startupProjName);
sln.SolutionBuild.StartupProjects = startupProj.Project.UniqueName;
where FindVSProject was implemented as:
private VSProject FindVSProject(string projName)
{
foreach (Project p in _dte.Solution.Projects)
if (p.Name.Equals(projName, StringComparison.CurrentCultureIgnoreCase))
return p.Object as VSProject;
return null;
}